As any professional contractor will attest, nothing beats having the proper tool for a job. The proper tool can save time and money, produce a higher quality job, reduce damage to equipment, and provide increased safety for workers. This is particularly true in fields is which require the use of a power saw to crosscut a piece of dimensional lumber such as a two-by-four.
Many workers utilize a framing square to serve as a perpendicular guide when crosscutting lumber as described above. While this method does work, it is also plagued with problems. First, the square can easily move before or during the cut, which results in an erroneous cut and wasted material.
Second, this method forces the user to place their hand near the blade of the saw, which is a significant safety concern. Also, this method will not work at all when using other tools such as a router to produce dado cuts.
Various attempts have been made to provide cutting guides. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 2,773,523, issued in the name of Hopla, describes a portable guide device for saws which removably attaches to a work piece and provides lateral and angular adjustability.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,724, issued in the name of Paul, describes an adjustable saw guide allowing cuts to be made on opposite sides of the work piece with removing the guide.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,711, issued in the name of Gold, describes a saw guide with an adjustable guide and a threaded clamping mechanism for securing the guide.
While these apparatuses fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are large and bulky, which can make them difficult to transport and difficult to manipulate between cuts. Furthermore, many such devices provide an extensive range of adjustment mechanisms which results in increased time spent installing and removing the apparatus, even for simple tasks, making those apparatuses unsuited for simple, repetitious tasks. Accordingly, there exists a need for an adjustable saw cutting guide without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.